A review of graphene and graphene oxide sponge: material synthesis and applications to energy and the environment

Abstract

This paper gives a comprehensive review about the most recent progress in synthesis, characterization, fundamental understanding, and the performance of graphene and graphene oxide sponges. Practical applications are considered including use in composite materials, as the electrode materials for electrochemical sensors, as absorbers for both gases and liquids, and as electrode materials for devices involved in electrochemical energy storage and conversion. Several advantages of both graphene and graphene oxide sponges such as three dimensional graphene networks, high surface area, high electro/ thermo conductivities, high chemical/electrochemical stability, high flexibility and elasticity, and extremely high surface hydrophobicity are emphasized. To facilitate further research and development, the technical challenges are discussed, and several future research directions are also suggested in this paper. Broader contextAdvanced graphene materials residing at the frontier of scientic research offer immense potential for overcoming the challenges related to the performance, functionality and durability of key functional materials' in the elds of life science, energy, and the environment. Future demand necessitates advanced processing methods be developed that can mass produce high quality, two-dimensional graphene sheets while overcoming the issues of poor dispersion and restacking with large size-scale deployment of two-dimensional graphene sheets. These issues, along with graphene sheet defects and multilayer thicknesses prevent the full realization of graphene's high potential, including electronic properties and high surface area. Three-dimensional arrangements have been recently able to address these limitations, by creating sponge-like low density materials with a long list of benecial properties including: macroscale size, high accessible surface area, less restacking, highly-interconnected microstructure, high strength and exibility, fast ion transport and electron conductivity. This review is intended to address the continued developments and challenges with a wide scope of interest, highlighting fundamental understanding of the synthesis and characterization procedures, future outlook, as well as an in-depth discussion of application areas reporting high performance in recent publications. The outstanding potential of these materials has enabled signicant enhancements for numerous important applications such as electrochemical energy storage and conversion, absorption, sensing, catalysis, transistors and polymer composites.

Graphene-based transition metal oxide nanocomposites for the oxygen reduction reaction

“…24 It shows unique merits, for example, a super theoretical specific surface area of 2620 m 2 g −1 . 25 Moreover, the layer-by-layer graphene structured by π-π stacking interactions has high thermodynamic stability, and this special layered construction is beneficial for the acceleration of electrons moving between the layers even at ambient temperature. 26 In particular, more advantages, such as excellent electrical conductivity, high-performance of charge carrier mobility, high levels of transparency accompanied with perfect mechanical strength, make graphene hugely and inestimably potential for the top scientific applications.…”

Porous Graphene Materials for Energy Storage and Conversion Applications

“…The pore sizes of these 3D macroscopic structures are in the range of submicrometer to several micrometers. Because of macroscopic nature, they possess high mechanical strength, compressibility, excellent conductivity, and adsorption characteristics [56][57][58][59]. Xu et al [60] prepared a self-assembled graphene hydrogel (SGH) by heating the GO dispersion sealed in a Teflon-lined autoclave at 180°C for 12 h. The hydrothermally reduced GO had a well-defined 3D interconnected porous network ( Figure 2).…”

A Short Review of the Architecture and Computational Analysis in the Design of Graphene Based Bioelectronic Devices

“…(1,3,25) After a breakthrough study on the preparation of graphene, which is a single-atom-thick sheet of carbon, by Novoselov and co-workers, (26) there has been tremendous effort to utilize this nanomaterial for the electronic coupling of redox enzymes. (27)(28)(29)(30) Its ultrahigh in-plane electron conductivity, (31,32) high thermal conductivity, (33) and mechanical properties (31)(32)(33) make it a promising material not only for the channel of electronic devices (34)(35)(36) but also for the construction of bioelectrodes and biomembranes. (37)(38)(39) Figure 2 shows a graphene-based field-effect transistor (FET) biosensor in which anti-immunoglobulin G…”